There's more to it than you think
by Moleculees
Summary: Hunger Games in the POV of Marvel and Glimmer from District one. We all know them as a self righteous, mildly annoying tributes from District One - Luxury. But, none of us have taken a step into their shoes. Rated T for mild language


"Five..."

My heart is palpitating roughly beneath my chest cavity, rapidly sending blood to all parts of my body. My legs, arms, face, and toes are heating up, shaking. The muscle is working to its max extent, causing every vein to pulse, and ache severely. Thump. It goes. Thump thump. Time is running out, I'm losing focus. These games are making me a nervous wreck. I shake my head in defiance of my thoughts, I shouldn't be getting nervous. I'm going to win this thing, I'm going to win it for sure. I'm District 1, luxury. I've been trained for these games my whole life, there's no way I'm wasting the efforts of my district, and not to mention, the efforts of myself.

"Four..."

The deep, metronic voice counts down another precious second. My mind whirs, then I scan the cornucopia. My optics fall upon a large pile of silver spears, the edges are perfectly sharpened, the neck is smooth, and it glistens beneath the glare of the sun above me. The spears look lethal, so beautifully lethal. Obviously the capitol put good efforts into these weapons. They seem to be calling my name. I can't wait to get my palms wrapped around those beauties.

"Three...Two..."

I have little time left, I prepare myself. My body is angled at 45 degrees, I'm getting ready to sprint my way to the spears. No one can stop me. No one can stop Marvel, the strong boy who loves killing as much as he loves himself. If any one of these weak tributes even try to lay a finger on me they'll learn a lesson they'll surely never forget. My eyes fall on a small boy from district 7. Judging by his placement and stance, he'll probably be the first tribute to run into me on my sprint to my weapons of choice. He'll be an easy kill, I could snap his little body in half if I wanted. My feet are ready to fly off of the podium that I stand on. A bead of sweat falls off my brow as I wait for the siren that will change my life forever.

"One..."

Then the starting tone sounds off, blasting loudly in my ears, deafening me. The fear sets in, the adrenaline starts pumping, my feet are already flying underneath me. The ground is uneven, but I still run, ignoring the fact that the chances of me falling and ruining my chances at being victor are high. I can't stop until I reach my spears. Cato flies past me, and drives his sword through a female tributes abdomen. The blood bath begins. I have to hurry and get to the spears, or my time at the Games will have ended before it even began. I'm 50 meters away from the spears, and the small boy I had noticed earlier runs into me. In all my fury I shove the small district 7 boy to the ground and kick his head so hard you can see a dent in his skull. Two down. I pace myself again, readying my hands to grasp a spear, but before I can grab a spear, a sharp pain pierces through my chest. I grab at the arrow that has planted its head in my body. I'm shocked. Have I already ended my time at the games? Me? Marvel from District 1? Killed already? The blood is pouring from my wound. I look up, and I see the District 12 girl, staring at me with frightened eyes. Her first kill. The stupid "girl on fire" already killed me? It can't be...

I look back down at the wound, and it seems to be.. Festering? The arrow has disappeared, and the hole where the arrow once was is growing, bigger, and bigger. It's horrifying. The scarlet blood is pouring out of the gaping hole like a waterfall, and I see my life's work drain out with it. I pat furiously at the wound, trying to keep it from bleeding, but to no avail. The wound continues to grow, and my sight gets fuzzy. The last thing I see is The Girl on Fire, standing above me, eyes as hungry as a lions.

I gasp, and sit upright in bed. Sweat is drenching my bare torso, my breathing is heavy, and my legs are shaking. Hastily, I get up and run for the showers. In the process of doing so, I run into the glass table that was placed near my bed. I cringe and let out a small whimper as the edge of the finely made table digs into my quad. I had forgotten that I'm at the capitol, not the house back in District 1. I'm still unfamiliar with the apartment they have imprisoned me in. Quickly shaking it off, I continue my race towards the shower. As I enter the large cube of a shower, I press every button as I possibly can, in efforts to wash away the sweat and fear that is encasing me. The several heads of the shower are pounding me fiercely with warm water, and it washes away all of my problems. I rest my wet head on the wall of the shower, and let the sickeningly sweet scented liquid fall down my body as I take time to regain my sanity.

I had just arrived at the capitol only a few hours ago, and little before that, I was reaped for the games. I honestly wasn't bothered too much by the fact I was reaped. Unlike many of the districts here in Panem, District 1 is trained for the games. So, we're pretty prepared, and ready to win. You see, I have acquired a great strength in fighting, especially with spears. I'm quite proud of it, actually. I can hit a target from almost 70 meters away. Best I have ever gotten was 97.54 meters, straight at the heart. But, average is 70 meters. Still pretty good, though. Actually, I'm the top of my district.

The shower is still running, but I hear the door creak slightly. Someone is walking in, it's obviously not an appropriate time to come in. The foul mood I had been given is still lingering. I curse at myself for not locking the door. I wonder who it could be, it could be a Peacekeeper, an Avox, or maybe my Mentor, Marjory. But, all of my guesses are proved wrong when a soft, female voice, calls out my name.

"Marvel...? Are you okay?"

I sigh, it's Glimmer. The female tribute from my district. I had forgotten we shared an apartment. I turn off the shower, and reply, rather annoyed.

"What is it, Glimmer?"

I hear her scoff quietly, obviously bothered by my rude reply.

"I was just checking to see if you were okay, you made quite the ruckus out there. But, obviously I shouldn't have checked up on you. Never mind, Marvel. Never mind."

I hear her stomp out of the bathroom and shortly following there's a loud slam of the door. She's left a dreadful aura in her place. I sigh and turn the water back on, she's a decent girl, I can whole-heartedly admit that. Ah, Glimmer. She, like me, is 17. We've trained in the same group for 9 years prior to now. We've never been best friends, or lovers, but we've gotten to know each other on a (kind of) decent level. I know some of her physical weaknesses and her fears, just as she knows some of mine (or lack thereof). But, she gets rather annoying. (Not like that doesn't apply to everyone I've met...) She is very talkative, and quite immature. She was always an attention seeker. She'd do whatever, whenever, to acquire the eyes of anyone in the district (particularly males). That type of attitude doesn't fly with me too well. If you actually have to try that hard to get the attention you desire, you obviously don't deserve it. But all in all, she'd bask in the glory of the praise and compliments she so often received.

Another thing that peeves me about Glimmer is that the child never seems to take training seriously. Back home, there would be many training sessions for children. We often started at age 8, so we could get in 10 years of training. One every year, 4 years prior to the reaping age of 12, and then 6 more years during the time period where we had the possibility of getting reaped. District 1 is very serious about winning the games, so they train us long and hard. We're a pretty tough bunch, and we've had many victors. So, I'd say District 1 has things under control. But Glimmer, little ol' Glimmer here, with her lack of focus, has never been the strongest female of our district. Sure, she can shoot a few arrows on target, but she's nothing special. Her hand to hand combat isn't the strongest, and she isn't gifted in any weapon. All she is, is a flirt. During training she'd brush off target practice to flip her hair and bat a few eyelashes at the older males of our District. She uses her good looks to woo over people. I suppose you can't expect too much out of the most beautiful girl of the district.

So in regards to that, it wasn't a surprise to see her well up with fear when her name was called at the reaping. You could see it in her clear blue eyes, she was terrified. Glimmer knew from the moment she stepped onto the stage, she was going to lose. She is still aware her life is going to end more sooner, than later. The only thing that will keep her alive for a while longer, is the career alliance that is formed at the beginning of the games. And, maybe me. I am a man, and I should be the one protecting her. I do protect people I am acquainted with. (Typically...)

She's a friend, an acquaintance, more so. (An annoying one, but, once again, that's beside the point). I made many of those back home, I mean, everyone thought (and still thinks) of me as the self-loving Marvel, who is gifted with spears, and people favored that out of me. Being self-righteous is a nice quality, and I suppose people think of that as a quality a victor should have. I can't help that, really. When people like you, people like you. So, I tried to keep up the act to attain more favor. Gaining favor of people is what keeps you alive at the games... That's what my father taught me, at least. I've got to keep people loving me, so that if perhaps I was reaped, I would get enough sponsors from the district to keep me alive during the games. More sponsors plus more things equals longevity of life in the games. That's the equation I've always lived by. And, that equation made friends and allies for me back at home. I'd keep coming off as a self-loving man, and everyone else would fall in love with me, too.

Such did happen, I made friends. There's Gregory, Valor, Hawkings, Fallend, Valencia, and more, many more. I have a plethora of friends... But, when I think about these people getting killed, it doesn't bother me. I could easily drive a spear through their heart and not feel guilty about it. I could also watch them get slaughtered by another tribute. There's no real connection between any of us, nothing on a deeper level.

What's bothersome though, is that I've spent more time with them, than with Glimmer. I've only talked to Glimmer few times back at home, and trained (personally) with her even fewer. We didn't share stories, shoot jokes at each other, or anything. She was always the annoying, talkative, blonde, Glimmer. We weren't friends. Hardly even acquaintances. The girl was equally annoyed with me as I was with her. So why? Why does thinking about Glimmer getting killed make me nauseous?

I turn off the shower and let the steam envelop me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


End file.
